[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 155 (Thursday, October 22, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H7095-H7096]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          OBAMACARE IS FAILING

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to talk for a few minutes this 
morning about the families that are suffering under the false promises 
of ObamaCare. We are beginning to see this play out all across the 
country. The ObamaCare failings are very pronounced; and you see them 
in the communities; and you understand how they are affecting lives.
  Now, the supporters of ObamaCare continue to have blinders on about 
this; and they don't want to admit that the entire premise is a theory, 
not proven. It was change for the sake of change. It was change for the 
sake of centralized control. It was change for the sake of the 
arrogance of the elite making decisions for millions of Americans and 
determining what kind of health care they were going to be able to 
access.
  We all remember that the press said that the biggest fabrication of 
the decade was, if you like your doctor, you can keep him. It is all so 
unfortunate.
  I want to look, Mr. Speaker, for just a few minutes at what has 
happened with these co-ops that are now failing. The failings are very 
pronounced, and they truly have an imprint and an effect in our 
communities.
  One month before the ObamaCare-funded Oregon co-op announced its 
failure in bankruptcy, the CEO said she saw a ``long health life in 
front of us.'' They had a $50 million Federal loan, if you will, and 
had managed to enroll only 10,000 people. Now the taxpayers are 
beginning to wonder if that loan is ever going to be repaid.
  Take a look at Colorado. In the Colorado co-op, the same story; 72 
million taxpayer dollars, and they enrolled 83,000 people. Do the math 
on what the enrollment alone is costing the American taxpayer, and do 
the math on what kind of healthcare access could

[[Page H7096]]

have been if individuals were going straight to the marketplace.
  We have heard Kentucky celebrated as being such a success story and 
the poster child for the success of ObamaCare. Here is the truth: they 
have $146 million in Federal loans and then another $65 million in an 
emergency solvency loan. They have 51,000 people in a co-op that is not 
functioning.
  And in Tennessee, where our co-op is going under, $73 million, and 
they had 27,000 people enrolled.
  Now, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle continue to say, 
oh, ObamaCare has been such a success. If you do the math and look at 
the numbers, I take issue with that. I would not term that a success. I 
term it a failure.
  I wonder if the people in Oregon and Colorado, Kentucky and Tennessee 
are feeling success as they, once again, find out that simply having an 
insurance card is not health care. It is access to the queue, if the 
company is solvent and the queue exists.
  Imagine, four States, a collective nearly $500 million for 
experiments. That is half a billion taxpayer dollars for experiments in 
health insurance delivery, all before anybody received any mental 
health help or received a single mammogram or a single child's vaccine.
  We know that ObamaCare is too expensive to afford; and, for all too 
many, it is too expensive to use once they get the insurance. It is 
proving to be a failure.

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